Hi PerlVader,

Since you have similar codes only to open, read and split into "words" for both of the files you are using. Why not, put common codes into a subroutine, then pass each of the file into it.
Then using a for/foreach loop, check the arrays. like so:

#!/usr/bin/perl
use warnings;
use strict;

my $first_array  = get_words('short.txt');
my $second_array = get_words('woordelysEng.txt');

foreach my $value ( @{$first_array} ) {
    foreach ( @{$second_array} ) {
        print $_, " occurs in first text file\n" if $value eq $_;
    }
}

sub get_words {
    my $filename = shift;
    my @generated_word;
    open my $fh, '<', $filename or die "can't open file: $!";
    while (<$fh>) {
        push @generated_word, split;
    }
    return \@generated_word;
}
[download]

the occurs in first text file
cat occurs in first text file
the occurs in first text file
the occurs in first text file
cat occurs in first text file
the occurs in first text file
dog occurs in first text file
the occurs in first text file
cat occurs in first text file
the occurs in first text file
cat occurs in first text file
the occurs in first text file
[download]